Plan for new Marin General Hospital complex raises concerns about traffic, parking, aesthetics

Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae has been under public management for two years. The hospital, pictured in 2011, was managed by Sutter Health previously. On Tuesday, an arbitor ordered Sutter to pay the hosptial $21.5 million. (IJ photo/Frankie Frost)

Traffic congestion, parking and aesthetics topped the concerns Marin County planning commissioners voiced Monday after reviewing plans for a new $500 million Marin General Hospital complex at the site of the existing hospital in Greenbrae.

The Planning Commission provided comments and held a public hearing on the environmental impact report for the project even though it will have no say on whether the report is approved. Under the California Environmental Quality Act, that authority resides with the Marin Healthcare District board.

The project calls for construction of a 300,000-square-foot hospital replacement building consisting of two wings, a new 100,000-square-foot ambulatory services building; and two new parking structures containing a total of 919 spaces. The project would add 662,020 square feet of total building structures to the existing campus.

"I am most concerned about the traffic and greenhouse gases," said Commissioner Katherine Crecelius. "I think something needs to be done about the transportation demand management."

Commissioner Don Dickenson said he shared Crecelius's desire to reduce the number of daily car trips the project would generate, and he added, "I have real concerns about the parking."

Dickenson and other commissioners also said the size of some of the planned structures, in particular a five-story parking garage that would be near Bon Air Road, could be a problem.

"I don't think there has been an accurate representation of the visual impact of the five-story parking lot," Dickenson said.

Only two members of the public spoke during the public hearing: Ann Thomas, a board member of the Marin Conservation League; and Ann Peterson, chairwoman of the Kentfield Planning Advisory Board. Both Thomas and Peterson also focused their comments on traffic and parking.

Thomas said that given the additional traffic the project is expected to generate, "We are disappointed that the EIR doesn't propose more robust mitigation measures."

For example, Thomas suggested that hospital workers might be able to park their cars in more remote lots and be transported from the lots to the hospital by shuttle bus.

Thomas expressed concern that even after constructing the two parking garages the hospital would still lack the parking it needs. She said she fears hospital employees would monopolize spaces along Bon Air Road where visitors to Hal Brown Park at Creekside need to park.

According to the environmental impact report, the hospital falls short of meeting its total demand for parking by 38 spaces even though it leases an additional 90 spaces from nearby St. Sebastian's Church. The report notes that hospital employees often park in some of the 73 on-street parking spaces along Bon Air Road.

The impact report states that if the hospital continues to lease the 90 spaces from St. Sebastian's Church and builds the two new parking garages, it will exceed demand by 71 spaces.

Peterson said she had worries besides traffic and parking.

"We are quite concerned about the aesthetics of having these massive structures right along Bon Air Road," Peterson said.

Caltrans submitted a letter earlier this month suggesting that some of the traffic volume estimates in the environmental impact report are too low. Caltrans officials are concerned that additional traffic generated by the project could affect traffic on Highway 101 by causing vehicles to queue up in both southbound and northbound off-ramps for Sir Francis Drake Boulevard.

Jon Friedenberg, Marin General's chief fund and business development officer, said consultants working on the hospital project would respond in writing to all of the questions raised at Monday's meeting. He said those responses will be posted on the Marin Healthcare District's website, at www.marinhealthcare.org, along with the environmental impact report and all of the public comments submitted to date.